I am troubleshooting my network (with a view to better Roon performance when streaming ), and want to try the 1.1.1.1 DNS setting. I am adjusting these settings in my TP link Router as well as the TP link Access Point.
For the router I have 2 options where to change these settings. In ‘Internet’ and DHCP. Do I change them both to 1.1.1.1? Or Do I dis-enable DHCP?
The first (in ‘internet’) is configuring the DNS servers that the router itself will use. The second, in ‘DHCP’ is configuring the DNS servers that will be pushed to DHCP clients for them to use.
Having them both the same is fine. Do not disable the DHCP server. If you want to use static (explicitely configured) ip address on devices, you need to restrict the DHCP IP Address POOL so that the range that the range of ip address that can be allocated by DHCP does *not include the addresses that you have explicitely assigned to devices (including the access point(s)).
E.g. set the IP Address Pool to 102.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.199 and set the ip address of any manually configured devices to use ip addresses in the range 192.168.0.200 to 192.168.0.254.
An alternative, is often to set the DHCP primary DNS to the routers ip address (192.168.0.1) and the secondary to the 1.1.1.1. This method will result in local network devices being able to take advantage of the DNS resolver cache in the router which may speed up address resolution requests that are frequenly made by multiple devices.
The same applies for the access point where your are actually setting the DNS servers to use rather than getting them (along with an ip address) from the primary routers DHCP server.
Personally, for the Access point, I would set it to ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’ and then in the primary router I would set up a DHCP reservation so that the same ip address(es) is(are) always allocated to the access point router(s).
The ip address (192.168.0.151.) configured in the access point above is problematic because it is part of the pool currently configured to be used by DHCP.
thanks for taking time to explain. I must admit , not being too tech savvy, I had a hard time following all of that info but have had a go at changing the settings which you can see here. Pls tell me if you see any errors. If you see things I can change specifically pls let me know .
also I am using 8.8.8.8 not 1.1.1.1 right now.
I should also mention that I am getting good speeds with this set up, although I am the only one currently on the network.
However, on your access point, I would disable DHCP so that your primary router is the only DHCP server on your network. This keeps things far simpler. E.g.:
As it stands, you could, in principle, have issues because both your primary router and your access point have active DHCP servers which can allocate ip addresses in the range 192.168.0.200 to 192.168.0.250 and may, as a consequence get multiple devices allocated the same ip address.
You may well be gettings away with it at present because, when a device uses DHCP to request an IP address, it will get two offers - one from the router with a 120 minute lease time and one from the access point with a 1 minute lease time. It is almost certain that the device would then accept the offer with the longest lease time - so effectively, you are only getting ip addresses from the router makeing the access point DHCP server totally redundant.
Edit:
The other thing that I would do is to change the DHCP lease time from 120 minutes to 1440 minutes (24 hours). This means that, instead of requesting a DHCP address renewal after 1 hour (half of the lease time), it will only have to request a DHCP address renewal every 12 hours (720 mimutes - again half the lease time). This mean that there will be a greater chance that ip addresses on your network will be stable.
Many thanks for your help. Question in the AP DHCP secondary DNS settings it’s now 8.8.4.4, should it be 8.8.8.8 or it no longer matters since it’s ‘off’?
otherwise
I have kept the router settings.
I have turned DHCP server on AP to OFF.
I have changed the ROUTER’s DHCP add. lease time from 120 to 1440 mins.
If this is correct I will leave be and see how it goes.
copy that. I have sporadic network issues / tracks stalling or skipping when streaming Qobuz via Roon, esp w high rez. its a pain as i listen to 90% of my music this way.
Do you think my previous DNS settings had something to do with it since my overall internet speeds are quite good , something else seemed to be the problem.
again, thanks,.
How is the access point connected to your primary router? Ideally this should be using wired ethernet (ethernet backhaul) so that the Wifi link only carries the traffic to and from the local devices. If you connect them with WiFi, it will work but it means that there is much more possibility for WiFi bandwidth contension.
The other point is that, again, ideally, your Roon Server (and device providing Network Addressed Storage used for storing the Roon local library) should be connected by ethernet to the primary router rather than the access point. If this is not possible, then again there is a much higher probability of WiFi congestion causing an issue.
Note that the bandwidth provided by WiFi (on one band) is shared between all devices therefor the more devices you have using WiFi at the same time, the lower the data that can be achieved in practise by each of those devices.
This is in contrast to ethernet where the link between any two ethernet ports, typically only sees traffic that has to travel over that link (OK there is broadcast traffic as well but that is a trivial amount). Thus, a wired ethernet network can sustain much, much higher total traffic than an equivalent network connected by WiFi. You would likely find that a very ordinary 1Gbps wired network can sustain much higher traffic levels than a Wifi Network providing twice as much bandwidth.
The Access P has wired connection to router. However my Roon core is installed on my new Imac which is connected to the Access P by wifi. Perhaps that’s the weakness as u say. I cannot get an ethernet connection where the Imac is located.
I could set up a stand alone roon core/rock . If there’s a good solution less than $300 I’d be interested. The hardware suggestions that I see in Roon support are all around $500 and up I believe.
in meantime I will see if the new DNS settings help with Roon streaming. I love having Roon Core on my Imac otherwise and its one less device to manage. thanks
Before you spend even $300 putting together a Roon Server, it may be worth just buying a long (25 or 50m) CAT6 ethernet cable and (temporarily) trailing it through the house from the access point to iMac to give a temporary wired ethernet connection. If your issues go away, then you know that it is indeed the WiFi that is causing the issues and then you can pursue other, more expensive, solutions. If it makes no difference, then you will have saved yourself a large expenditure.
Such a cable can be found for about £30 in the UK (for 50m) and is always useful to have around to help diagnose network issues.
As you say, it is unlikely that you would be able to put together a Roon Server machine for about $300 buying new components.
However, it may be just about possible if you were to buy a second hand or refurbished intel NUC (but make sure you buy one of the NUCs on the supported hardware list if you want to install ROCK (to give you a Nucleus like experience).
If you are happy to run linux (or Windows) to host Roon Server, you do not need to be restricted to the NUCs on the ROCK supported hardware list. Almost any X64 PC with sufficient power can run linux and Roon Server.
Be aware that, it you go the Intel NUC/ROCK route, you will likely need 2 drives: A 128GByte or 256GByte NVME SSD to hold the operating system and the Roon Database and a SATA SSD or HDD (possibly USB attached) to hold the Roon Local library media files. If you go the Windows or linux route, a separate drive to library media files is not necessary if the NVME OS drive has enough space available.
thanks for the detailed feedback. ethernet cable sounds like my next plan of action .
glad to say that my updated DNS settings seem to have resulted in faster wifi speed from the access point to my Imac/ Roon Core.
cheers
